The present invention relates to a device for storage of motor vehicles, and more especially to a device for storing motor vehicles on at least two platforms, on top of one another, erected on the floor of an excavated pit having a single entrance level, raised with respect to the floor, for both platforms and being equipped with a mechanism for lifting or lowering the platforms to the common level of access.
Certain so-called "vertical parking devices" are in existence which consist of two or more platforms spaced vertically at a distance relative to one another which can be raised or lowered in a space between the bottom of an excavation and/or garage pit and upward to an access ramp common to both levels. In lowering such a device to the bottom position, the uppermost platform is held at a certain height above the common level of access and is then lowered on the entrance side to the level of the access ramp, whereby access is gained to the platform and to the vehicle resting on it. While this device affords certain savings in space when being built into garages or the like, it presents the disadvantage that the upper platform must be sloped relatively steeply in order to permit entry thereto, which presents certain difficulties in parking and entering, especially to elderly people. Moreover, the existing "vertical parking device", while requiring only a relatively shallow pit, possesses a relatively tall superstructure. While this feature is of minor importance in out-door installations, it presents considerable disadvantages if the device is installed in underground garages where only a specific height between floors or a limited distance above the level of the entrance plane is available. It presents a serious problem when two-level garage facilities of this general type are to be installed serially in the basements of larger apartment or office buildings.